Friends Of The Earth, Enemies Of The Truth

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), Great Britain’s watchdog agency for deceptive ads, ruled this week that Friends of the Earth (FoE) is engaging in unwarranted scare tactics with its latest fund-raising push. FoE’s campaign asked the public “Do you really know what you’re eating?” before warning that “today’s food is laced with dangerous hidden ingredients.” Since the leaflets and mailers in question explicitly endorsed organic food alternatives, ASA concluded that FoE lied by implying that pesticide residues used on conventional fruits and vegetables were somehow more harmful than manure residues left on organically-grown produce. (from the Press Association Newsfile. Link unavailable.)